A Little Information About The Big Show

You want to know my truth about shooting fashion shows? I don’t shoot them! Seriously. But I have shot them in the past, especially when I was first starting out in my career. The thing is, if you’re a fashion photographer, it’s going to come up. You’re going to get offered the gig at some point. Or a designer friend is going to need a favor and you won’t want to turn them down. Or maybe you really want to head in that direction with your career. For me, I’ve gotten to the place now where I will kindly refuse the gig because I just don’t enjoy shooting them.

Read More »

An inside look at the day before a shoot

Photo courtesy of Eric Lennstrom Photography

So I am shooting for the next two days. Tomorrow I am shooting for Genlux Magazine again. I’m shooting for the Spring Fashion Issue. The next day I am shooting a beauty story for Zink Magazine. I’ve had these two shoots slated to shoot for the last 3 weeks. We’ve had plenty of time to prepare for them. I’ll only write about my first shoot for Genlux because to write about both of them would turn out to be a really long and really redundant post. So with Genlux, I was given the theme. Travel! That’s the theme of the issue for Spring and that was the only guideline. Since I am totally bored with lifestyle photography and travel lends so easily to that theme, I racked my brain for a couple of days and then it hit me: I wanted to go off in a totally different direction and do a story on Astral Travel! Right up my alley! I’m so tired of the whole trains, planes and automobiles thing. If I see one more chick on a yacht I might faint from boredom. But Astral Travel. Now that’s something I can sink my teeth into. Stephen, the creative director, OK’d my idea. Which is astonishing!

Read More »

When I use a Tripod

When I am shooting 35mm I don’t normally use a tripod unless I’m using a real slow shutter speed. I say normally because sometimes I do use one.

But why don’t I normally shoot with one?

• Because I like to move around when I shoot. I’m all over the place when I shoot. I look for the shot while I’m shooting. And a tripod clips my wings, so to speak.
  

• I’m on the ground, up on a ladder, down on one knee and then up again.
  

• In my opinion, fashion is free flowing and needs to have movement and spirit. A tripod feels like it forces the shot to stay static and I start to feel “stuck” when I’m using one.

Read More »

Before I begin on what lenses should be used for beauty shooting, let me just point out that I am a Nikon shooter. I started out in 1980 with my dad’s old Canon AE-1 but pretty quickly jumped to a Nikon in about two years. I like the feeling of a Nikon in my hands, but they both are great SLR cameras. I won’t bash Canon because they have great cameras and lenses. But Nikon is my SLR camera system. And I pretty much can guarantee it always will be. And I’m a fairly passionate Nikon enthusiast. I won’t get on forums and fight with other tech freaks on the ol’ Nikon Vs. Canon debate. But I stand pretty firm on them being my SLR, and now DSLR, camera of choice! That said, I only will use Nikkor lenses! I will not put a lesser quality lens on my camera. It is my belief, and from experience, that the camera has little to do with image. But the lens has everything to do with it. Nikkor lenses are top quality lens. And I won’t sacrifice my image quality for a less expensive solution. Also I will admit that I am a huge advocate of fixed lens because of the quality of the glass. I’m not a fan of zoom lens, even though Nikon makes some great ones, and I’ve used them from time to time. However, I don’t own any zoom lenses. I’ve only rented them on the occasion I have felt I needed to “zoom” back and forth. For instance, when I shot a band walking across the street earlier in the year and I had to shoot them 300 times walking back and forth across that street, it was easier for me to capture that with a zoom lens.

Read More »

The challenges of using wide angle lens

Five years ago, I went to Samy’s Camera on Fairfax in Los Angeles and forked out a whopping $200 bucks for a used Nikkor 24mm 2.8 lens. It’s the least expensive lens I own, it’s the smallest and most unattractive lens I own, it’s used and a bit battered and it’s definitely not an AF lens. But it’s the lens I use most often! I love the effect that a wide angle gives my photographs. But it is tricky to get the shot without some distortion, so let’s talk about that for a minute. With a foreground-to-background approach, you can produce a dynamic three-dimensional effect that gives your photographs a real sense of enviroment. This is a huge reason I favor wide angle lens. They allow more information in the area being photographed so you can create a story within your photo. You can see more detail of where the model is standing or sitting, you see backgrounds, foregrounds, etc. This creates mood, thus creating a more dynamic shoot.

Read More »